Blood, Boobs, Sand, and Orgasm Nero

SEX AND BLACK MAGIC aka ORGASM NERO (1982)
D. Joe D’Amato
ONE 7
Full Frame

Richard Harrison stars as a writer in a far off island who becomes estranged from his lopsided breast implanted wife (Nieves Navarro). She begins to bang the nubile island hottie (Lucia Ramirez) to fulfill her sexual needs. Lots of picturesque lounging on the beach. Well photographed white sands and sixty nine positions while splayed out with waves crashing into them. Soon The wife is doing more than plowing the public fields, she is teaching the house guest the English language and generally taking her into her lie and heart. When Hubby gets home he is at first oblivious to their transgressions, but it wont take long for him to smell the musky scent of lady lust and put his own manly spin on the situation.

Richard Harrison speaks about shooting this movie in the book GODS IN SPANDEX and what he says is not exactly kind. He claims the script he was given to shoot was a thriller without sex and the movie he was actively shooting was quickly becoming the quasi-porn film we have today. Little did he know that some versions had hardcore spliced in as well (scenes which are extras on this DVD). He also tells stories of crew members teenaged daughters that continuously tried to have sex with him and how he had to fend off their advances... But if he was so in the dark about the content of the film then what about the shots of him almost balls out naked?

"Wading in the waters of island love. Joe D'Amato style."

The movie is typical of D’Amato in that is is generally boring sex fodder bookended by wacky almost horror. Opening with a cannibal tribal ritual in which a man has been killed by a shark and the tribe shares eating his heart for some reason that is not entirely clear. This makes not much sense until the last few minutes when it rears its head again to bring the movie back together. Naturally being the era it is from it also contains the typical lesbian gets raped by the lead of the movie scene. But here done one better when the female lead who has just been bitch slapped away so he can rape her lover decides this is just too good a chance for some hot three way action and joins in. Naturally this repairs their broken marriage and the poor Island girl is just going to have to go back to her savage ways!

Still with all the sleazy sex and offensive non-pc goings on, the movie has one nearly constant thing going for it. It is unrepentantly boring. It looks nice, D’Amato was always a talented cinematographer. But his movies were always paced like doughnuts packed into a colon. they often just refuse to move.  This is no different.

This new dvd has some cut scenes, those mentioned hardcore shots and a different end credit sequence. The transfer is nothing to write home about but it is at least in Italian.

Review by Andy Copp

Charles Dickens done the 42nd St way!

THE PASSIONS OF CAROL (1975)
D. Shaun Costello
DISTRIB-X-PIX
Full Frame
Did you ever think you would see a XXX retelling of Charles DICKen’s A CHRISTMAS CAROL? How about one that is actually very well made, with good set design, eye popping colors, neat cinematography and for the most part really good acting? Well it must be the 70’s porn world because modern smut wouldn’t bother. And it must be the work of porn auteur Shaun Costello because very few of the genre’s director’s could pull off such a weird feat and make it work. By all accounts it shouldn’t, but the resulting movie is all the things a could adult film should be, AND a remarkably sweet natured look at good-will to man to boot.

Mary Stuart stars as Carol Scrooge who runs a high society dirty magazine featuring naked men. She works her staff too hard and doesn’t believe in time off, even for Christmas, which she abhors. Her main layout man Bob Hatchet (Jamie Gillis) has to stay over through Christmas eve to get pictures ready she is unsatisfied with while she fucks a new model (Sonny Landham). But that night she is visited by the very well known three spirits of Christmas who take her through her life, past, present and future to try to help her amend her heathen ways.

She is first visited by her former business partner, Lance Marley (Marc “ten inch” Stevens) who warns her of what lies ahead before eating her out and boning her on the bed. Then she meets the ghost of Christmas past who takes her to a rather disturbing moment in her childhood where she cons her playmates into some very kinky playtime (all played by the adult players, acting like kids). Each subsequent scene plays out like the Dicken’s classic but with a decided adult twist, usually with the participants ended up fucking in some way.,

What sets THE PASSION OF CAROL apart is several things. One is the look of the movie. The movie was 90% shot on closed sets with everything designed by hand. While mostly very simply, the work on the set design is still very intricate and superb creating a cartoonish, other-worldliness that sets the movie apart. The whole thing is lit with harsh reds and greens, once again keeping with the Christmas motif. The gliding camera constantly finds the most interesting shots, weather there is sex going on or not, making everything appealing at all times.

The other interesting thing is that the movie has such a big heart. Even though the movie gets considerably bleak as it moves forward, it never loses site of a very sweet core, and the performances reflect it. Characters often tell each other they love them, a rarity in porn films. Jamie GIllis in particular is cast against type of a loving husband whose sole sex scene is with his wife. So when the final “transformation” of the main character happen, even if it is a little cheesy and heavy handed, it feels very sincere. It works because the movie is consistently sweet natured.

For all the sex going on, and some of it gets a bit perverted, the movie is a classy one. And should be a perennial for the Holidays in any sleaze loving families household.

This new DVD from Distrib-X-pix is something to behold. Remastered from ultra rare surviving elements to and HD source it is eye popping to look at. The bold greens and reds are solid for what I can only imagine is the first time (those colors ALWAYS bleed in analog sources). There is so much details newly available on screen that during the mirrored room three way sex scene the entire crew can now be seen hanging out in the reflections! Something that Shaun Costello is surprised to notice on his commentary.

Which that commentary is maybe the biggest reason to pick up the disc. Even if you are only interested in making of these films from the perspective of the era, this commentary makes this an essential purchase. Costello hits the ground running and never stops, giving us tons of information, incredible stories and is a great raconteur. I also appreciate that he never rags out or talks down about the people he is remembering or talking about. I’ve heard other commentaries/interviews about the adult era where people tend to get bitter or just don’t have nice tings to say. But anytime Shaun starts to seem to almost go into territory that may be unpleasant he keeps it upbeat and takes the high road. I liked that. I hope he does more commentaries as more of his films hit the format.


There is also a short little time capsule about 42nd Street that is cool but also a little sad to look at when shown how much it has changed. Add to that Shaun Costello’s exhaustive liner notes (more like a little book, than just liner notes as he goes into great detail on the making of the movie and living on 42nd st in the 70’s!) and you get one of the great grindhouse releases of 2010.

If you are a fan of this stuff you OWE it to yourself to pick this one up.

Review © Andrew Copp

You are going the WRONG WAY!!!

 Day nine of the September Exploitation Challenge takes me way down the wrong path!!!

WRONG WAY (1972)
D. Ray Williams
Not on DVD
16mm Full Frame

This no budget, 70’s LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT rip off is some sort of wonder to behold. Disgusting beyond belief, if only for the truly nasty people on display and the complete lack of moral compass on the part of the filmmakers. The movie seems to exist in a climate where the filmmakers saw Wes Craven’s film and thought to themselves “Hell we can do that, but who the hell needs all that moralizing crap! Let’s just add more sex and crotch shots!” Then they realized they only had fifty bucks to make the whole movie with.

The movie begins with a group of the perhaps scuzziest criminals in Grindhouse history laying around in the woods waiting on a drug buy. They complain incessantly about how it has been days since they have had any pills or grass. One thug who we learn is named “Crabs” (because he is scratching his nuts all the time and apparently has the nasty crotch critters) is particularly upset. He complains to another cohort that he got those crabs from letting his buddy “suck him off!’ 

"Only reason I got crabs is cause I let you SUCK ME OFF!" 

Meanwhile two pretty girls get caught going the WRONG WAY (!!!) and their car breaks down and two of the thugs trick them into getting into their jeep and heading back to the camp where these dirt balls are waiting. The bikers making the drug delivery. One of them sucks down raw eggs so his “love torpedoes can have full blast”. The main thug is thrilled to finally gets to roll a joint and has a hilarious hallucination once he smokes up consisting of a naked woman in a military beret and dreams of a winning hand of cards! All the dudes are happy to get their hands on the nubile young girls for a day of sexing on the dirt roads. 

 "On no! The car is broke down! We better get into some more comfortable walking clothes!"

But when the bikers discover the girls are there against their free will, they actually take a stand - “We thought those where your old ladies. We are in for any kidnapping and rape charges. You gotta let them go.” But out comes a shotgun and the bikers get on their motorcycles and ride off like little kids who just got scolded for playing on some-one's lawn.

"This is the kind of Hallucinations you see when you smoke really primo pot, according to this film." 

Then proceeds the twelve minute long rape scene. A scene that would be offensive if it was actually done well. Instead it is handled so poorly you can’t help but notice nasty details like the fact the guy playing Crabs hasn’t wiped his ass since he was seven years old and his entire butt is now stained bright green. Seriously, we are talking Green Giant ass here. Or that the hippie red head seams more interested in running around and touching the asses of his buddies than doing anything to the girls.  even worse is the tenth rate Bob Dylan tune that plays not once but twice over the scene trying hopelessly to ape the David Hess folk rock from LAST HOUSE ON THE LEFT. What IS effective however is the poor girls reactions to being ground on by these nasty, grungy post hippy thugs who really do look like they just got out of prison.  The takes go on forever and these actresses have to endure the constant grinding of each of this dirtbags from every angle and position. The whole thing is very disgusting and dirty. When they are done with the gang rape they just leave the girls on the road and take off, never to be seen again!

 "It is really horrible enough to get gang raped by these greaseball thugs. But to have one have them has a green stained ass just makes it the worst experience ever."

Meanwhile one of the girl’s father has called the police and a search party has started. Even a helicopter is looking for them. I suspect that is the case because A) someone the filmmakers knew had a chopper or B) they had stock footage of a chopper they could use (I suspect B is the case). But the cops are making very little ground. 


The girls go looking for help, stopping at a stream to was their ravaged vagina's. Naturally this calls for loving close ups. They hear people and investigate hoping to find help but instead find ANOTHER group of hippy criminals! This is where the movie takes a sharp turn away from being a LAST HOUSE rip off and into it’s own weird little territory. Seems these Hippies are some sort of Manson-esque cult and they have just killed a man. The girls has stumbled on his burial (including a two year old helping dig the grave, a nice touch!) and now this cult is pissed at them too. The cult leader decides they must join the cult and become their sex slaves and have their “will and egos broken”!

 "Hey you, over there! Why is your ass all green?"

Then the movie gets REALLY weird! Suddenly we meet two older men and a really cute dark haired girl they take into a shack out in the border town this is all happening in. they explain to her they are going to take her to Mexico and sell her for Heroin. Who the fuck are these people? They try to rape her, but since she is now a junkie she relents and loves it?!?!?! The chopper sees this and suddenly the plot is now about these guys!

 "Who the fuck are THESE GUYS?"

*SPOILERS*
The cops get a call on the radio in which we are told the police found the two girls. We get two or three brief shots of a shoot out in which one of the cult members is shot in the balls and we see them trying to rape the girls yet again. All in all the shots last about twenty seconds. The rest is recounted in voice over. The girls were found and are back home! Now the movie shifts gears to this secondary plot about the kidnappers and heroin dealers!


It is almost like some weird shit happened and that portion of the cast said FUCK YOU and refused to finish the movie. Considering the on screen treatment of the girls in the early rape scenes, and that it looked like they were going to have to do a bunch more, I am willing to bet that is EXACTLY what happened. That they just had enough and so the movie had to be rewritten hastily with what was there. It all ends with a cops confronting the heroin dealers/ kidnappers confrontation. 

 "You've defiled us, made us see the green ass guy and join a cult. We've had enough. We QUIT this Goddamn movie!"

This is one of the sleaziest and weirdest Grindhouse exploitation movies I have seen in many a moon. Directed in long takes like storefront porn, shot almost entirely outside in the woods, and cast with people who do not look like actors but seem to really be the parts they are on screen. This is nasty ass, low brown cinema at its most ghetto. I cannot imagine the audience this was meant for or where it even played. But I would have loved to have been there to see them. But something tells me they would have been so stones they would have barely noticed the movie at all. 

Review © Andy Copp

A Cinematic Thalidomide Baby

Day three of the Exploitation September challenge...

TEENAGE NURSES (1974)
D. Doug Collins (Constantine Zuba)/ Shaun Costello
Video X Pix
16mm Full Frame

This is among the weirdest movies I have ever seen, not only in the XXX field but in any genre. Thankfully SHAUN COSTELLO forwarded me an article he had written that gave me some history into the making of this monstrosity which shines a lot of light on the mind set that created it. But make no mistake there are no other movies quite like TEENAGE NURSES, it is a genre unto itself. And truly rewarding viewing for those who like to travel to the out most edges of cinematic weirdness.

The completely wrong-headed plot deals with the Bethesda Veterans Hospital during the waning years of the Vietnam war and the logical concerns of the craptastic entertainment for the suffering maimed soldiers there. A suitably insane Dr. Stein has brought in a group of horny Nurses to satisfy the needs of said patients. But he is also not happy about the USO shows that have been put on in the past so he has brought in a number of, well, frankly insane vaudeville styled acts for the pleasure of the suffering.

So between the bouts of up close and personal fucking we get jugglers, unicyclists, a snake charmer dressed in vinyl, a singing woman comedian, a lounge singer/ tap dancer and a ventriloquist comedian with a black dummy.  All of this book ended with a crack reporter in Groucho Marx glasses (played by Costello himself) giving us the rundown on the story, and screwing up his lines.  If you pay close attention you can spot HARRY REAMS, FRED LINCOLN and JAMIE GILLIS in blink and you miss them supporting roles. 

"Shaun Costello Himself as Groucho Marx"

Ultimately a through line plot finally emerges in the last reel about a soldier who has lost his leg in battle who feels he will not ever be whole again and one of the nurses tends to his sexual needs irregardless of his amputee status. Once again this character is played by Costello himself and the nurse is played by Laura Cannon who was in Shaun Costello’s classic FORCED ENTRY.  This last act sex scene is what makes the whole movie worthwhile as it actually manages to be quite touching, tender even amidst all the insane and moral chaos around it. While the movie at large is clearly a farce, designed to at once frustrate, or even thumb its nose at the audience to a degree (or maybe it is just a product drugs of the time period) this final scenes becomes even more effective because of it. Of course once the poor soldier is released and hit by a car it sort of negates the beauty of the scene preceding it...

"If the Republicans only knew this was part of the new Health Care Bill..."

The history of this involves director Doug Collins putting this together as a XXX comedy with lofty ambitions to involve musical numbers and the vaudeville bits. Naturally it did not sell. Years later after some legal trouble the movie was sold to Shaun Costello who shot more sex footage, the wrap around stuff and added some other things to make it more coherent and commercially viable to the adult crowd and unleashed it to the rain coat crowds. It only recently resurfaced on this dvd. 

 "Costello as the Amputee Soldier and Laura Cannon as Nurse Scarlett who tends to his needs in 

a surprisingly effective and tender scene."

Shaun Costello calls it his cinematic Thalidomide Baby. That about fits the bill as it is as twisted a porn film as you could imagine. It really doesn’t function as a porn film should as the sex scenes are edited and interrupted by the comedy and vaudeville acts. But the comedy doesn’t quite succeed because it is interrupted by the sloppy sex and blow job  close ups. The whole thing has a weird laugh track even though it is about Vietnam Veterans being hospitalized during the war giving it a bit of the same kind of feel the incest scene during NATURAL BORN KILLERS had (but twenty years earlier). But, and this is important, the movie is NEVER boring. there is always something weird and wacky going on. And the climactic sex scene is shot with a lot of care, and even some distance which shows that they were thinking about it at least a little bit. With the acting in that scene really selling it as well.

TEENAGE NURSES (which was originally called AN AMERICAN IN BETHESDA) is a bizarre curiosity item well worth checking out. The Video X Pix dvd looks about what you would expect for this kind of fly by night grab a stray print and dump it to dvd deal. Maybe one day a more impressive dvd will surface. 

Review © Andy Copp